Bienvenue au Chapitre étudiant de Canada Choral!

Celeste Thordarson est une soprano dans sa quatrième année du programme de spécialisation en chant classique et en éducation musicale à l'Université de Toronto sous la direction du Dr Darryl Edwards.

Celeste a un sens profond de son avenir, ce qui alimente ses passions et ses objectifs éducatifs, en particulier dans les études chorales, la pédagogie vocale et la santé musicale.

Son engagement musical s'étend à divers rôles, comme celui de directrice musicale de la chorale d'enfants et d'adultes de la paroisse de l'Annonciation BVM. Elle est également coresponsable du Skule Choir de la Faculté d'ingénierie de l'Université de Toronto et chef adjointe du Junior Chorus des VIVA Singers. Elle a travaillé auparavant avec Sistema Toronto et le Toronto Children's Chorus.

Au-delà du domaine classique, Celeste a laissé sa marque dans la pop traditionnelle en tant qu'artiste vedette, interprète de première partie, ghostwriter et artiste exécutante pour des talents nationaux et internationaux.

Enthousiaste à l'idée de partager ses connaissances, Celeste se passionne pour l'éducation chorale et souhaite inspirer les autres dans leur cheminement musical.

Diane Kolin is a singer and a musicologist. She sings jazz and classical music, in choirs and smaller ensembles. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Musicology in York University, Toronto. Her research interests are diverse and include Critical Disability Studies, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Liszt. She is the editor in chief of the Journal of the French Beethoven Society - Association Beethoven France et Francophonie. The study of Beethoven’s deafness and her personal history led to her research in disability and music. She specializes in disability awareness and inclusion in the artistic world, particularly in music. Her collaboration with disabled musicians in the professional musical world allows her to expose new ideas on making music more accessible to a broader audience.

Karen Hu is a pre-service music educator and vocalist based in Milton/London, Ontario. They are currently completing a Bachelor of Music with Honours in Voice Performance at Western University and hope to pursue choral conducting beyond the undergraduate level. At the university level, Karen serves on the Music Education Students Association, Choir Council, Faculty of Music Student’s Council, and is a co-conductor of the Student Leadership Choral Collective  at the Don Wright Faculty of Music. Karen is also the co-creator of The Choral Collection, a database of choral and music education resources to expand upon programming and advocating for the inclusion of Access, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (AEDI-D) practices within and beyond choral spaces

Kathy Haddadkar is a passionate conductor, pianist, and singer pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting at the University of Toronto. She is the teaching assistant for MacMillan Singers and freelances as a chorister, music director and soloist. Kathy is the former Conductor and Director of Florivox Choir. She has been featured as guest conductor with the U of T Oratorio ensemble and served as guest lecturer for the U of T Faculty of Engineering Choir. Kathy has also supported institutional governance as Vice President Academic of the Graduate Students’ Association at the University of Alberta. She is grateful to have been selected as a conductor for the 2023 European American Alliance Summer Institute in Paris. Invested in the future of choirs, Kathy’s doctoral research aims to acknowledge the intersections of visual impairment and choral music. She looks forward to supporting the choral arts as Student Chapter co-chair.

Laura is a recent PhD graduate in the Music Education program at Western University in London, Canada. A recipient of the SSHRC Graduate Scholarship-Doctoral award, Laura’s research interests include the social and affective impact of collective singing on involuntarily childless women, the impact of infertility on social and musical identity, and lifelong musical learning.

Since 2004, Laura has established herself as a self-employed private voice, piano, and music theory teacher. She is Music Director of the Addison Women’s Choir in Cambridge, Ontario, and enjoys her role with Choral Canada as a member of the advocacy committee. Rooted in her personal experience with involuntary childlessness, Laura is passionate about raising consciousness of the experience, and working to support those who are childless not by
choice, particularly in the Canadian context. She facilitates two groups on Meetup.com for childless individuals in Ontario and, most recently, founded the Involuntarily Childless Researchers facebook group.

William Austin est ténor, organiste débutant et étudiant en troisième année de baccalauréat en sciences médicales à l'Université Dalhousie, avec une mineure en musique sous la direction de Cindy Townsend. William est très reconnaissant d'avoir chanté avec le Quintessential Vocal Ensemble, le MUN Chamber Choir, le Chœur national des jeunes du Canada, le Dal Chorus, et actuellement avec les Halifax Camerata Singers et le chœur Galileo Baroque!

En plus de ses intérêts musicaux, William mène des recherches avec Adiblab par l'intermédiaire de l'école d'ingénierie biomédicale de Dalhousie. William développe une injection de viscosupplément pour traiter l'arthrose à un stade précoce et un tissu bicouche en silicone-polyuréthane pour donner un revêtement antisalissure aux prothèses faciales des personnes ayant subi une chirurgie pour un cancer du visage. William a généreusement reçu une subvention du CRSNG pour ses recherches durant l'été 2023.